When she began college in 1998, Rachel Pearl had noble aspirations of a career in botany. As a biology major everyone in her family was happy that Rachel was following a more stable path, but a phone call from her mother in Coleford, England sent her down a much more musical journey.
Her mother, who has been a lifelong musician, continued to hone in her singer-songwriter skills across the ocean. She believed that her daughter had the talent to become a successful artist.
"My mom called and basically said, 'It's okay to be unstable, it's fun.'" said Rachel. "She told me that I was a singer and to give her a call when I finally figured that out."
Her folks were not very excited about having another starving artist in the family, but the idea grabbed her and she began studying classical voice at Western Kentucky University instead.
Not wanting to stifle her creativity by being forced to become a music teacher or opera singer, Rachel moved to Middle Tennessee when she heard of the opportunities in the Music Business programs at Middle Tennessee State University.
"I didn't know what I wanted to do and I hated singing classical music," explained Rachel as part of the reason for coming to MTSU. "I realized that artists were writing their own music and I wanted to find my own voice and what I sounded like."
Eventhough Rachel was classicly trained she had no problem finding her place in the studio. "It is a perfect world in the studio. If you mess up you can start over and the world will never know. True bliss. The engineers make you sound your best."
Pearl was able to do some studio work with Curtis Burch ( a Grammy award winning dobro player) when her mother came home from England to record an album. Rachel also recorded some jingles in a private studio and some voice overs for the local Fox affiliate in Bowling Green.
As she began to explore other genres Rachel developed a deep appreciation for jazz. When the chance came to study with a well-known jazz musician, Jim Ferguson, she jumped at the opportunity.
Meeting songwriters in the Nashville area helped to germinate her songwriting skills , as well as taking a songwriting course (twice) through her major. Rachel discovered that writing songs is hard, but it is well worth the effort.
Part of that hard work has also included singing on student studio projects for her peers in the Recording Industry program. This gave her the chance to sing a lot of different stlyes of music, and to help her settle on one: jazz.
"Some people say that I am too 'poppy' for jazz," said Rachel, recalling the words that a jazz purist spoke to her. "But to the general public, Norah Jones is jazz, that's how she's been promoted. I can make jazz what I want it to be and leave the rest."
Rachel Pearl has two current projects. One named Theodicy, a songwriting duo with fellow writer Ben Gortmaker. They are currently performing in the Nashville/Murfreesboro area and are working on their first CD effort- a folky yet complicated measure with jazz influences. Rachel Pearl and the Green Beans is another effort to expand her jazz range and back her up on her original music. They will have public performances in the Fall.
Rachel was the first president of MTSU's chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International.